


Quest Log: Mistletoe

by MusicalDefiance



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: <3, Christmas, F/M, Fluff, I am so sorry, Mistletoe, Secret Santa, because i can't write anything else, but i hope you like it regardless, but it ended up being a slow burn, this was supposed to be super fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 14:57:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13126059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicalDefiance/pseuds/MusicalDefiance
Summary: Futaba and Kana discuss a fun Christmas challenge.A challenge in which Futaba will not let Kana beat her in.





	Quest Log: Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Actualragdoll](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Actualragdoll).



“A kiss under the mistletoe?” Futaba typed. Her fingers clacked against the black keyboard in front of her, the tips of her fingers illuminated ever so slightly by the green lights shining through the cut letters of each button. Her thumb reached up to her mouth as she pressed it past her lips ever so slightly, curiously staring at the screen as each portion of it glowed across her wide-rimmed glasses.

“Yeah! Have you ever seen anything so romantic?” the other party replied back. Their chat message was pink and bubbly, the font curly and fancy, looking as girly as it could get. Definitely not Futaba’s style, but that’s why it was their chat preference and not hers.

Futaba sat back in her chair with an eyebrow raised. Sure she’d seen a mistletoe kiss before, at least she had in the dozens of anime and manga she’d seen, but _the_ most romantic thing ever? She wasn’t so sure about that. She’d seen hundreds of romantic scenarios and loving moments in all kinds of media, but such a fixation on this was odd to her. What exactly was the significance?

“I mean… It’s cute I guess?” she replied back, easily placing her chin in her hand. Her eyelids shielded over just a bit, eyes flicking back and forth between the chat and the gaming articles she was skimming through. This conversation wasn’t necessarily anything she was all that interested in, but she was beyond willing to respect whatever Kana-chan was wanting to talk about. They were certainly different at this point in their lives, Kana seeming to be more focused on the more simplistic aspects of life while Futaba was about as delved into the tech side of her life as she could possibly be, but Kana was always willing to listen to Futaba’s rambles about this game or that program. It was only fair as friend for her to listen all the same.

But still, mistletoe? What’s so cool about that?

“It’s more than cute!” Kana replied excitedly. “It’s adorable! I’ve always wanted to be kissed under the mistletoe, it’s sooooo romantic!”

Futaba chuckled at her friend’s exuberance. “I guess so,” she messaged back, smiling at how enthusiastic her friend could get. It was funny if nothing else, regardless of if Futaba really got the reason why or not.

The chat screen pinged again. “Haven’t you ever wanted to do something like that, Futaba-chan?” she asked innocently.

Futaba raised her eyebrows, reading over the message again and feeling somewhat caught off guard.

“What? Getting a kiss under the mistletoe?” she asked after a moment.

“Yeah!” Kana replied quickly. “Can’t you just imagine how cute it would be! It’s like the Christmas dream!”

Futaba paused, staring at the screen with her fingers hovering above the keyboard and not feeling entirely sure on how to respond. Truthfully, she hadn’t thought much of the concept of being kissed in general. Considering the year she had just had and how different things were this time around, with her being in high school now and all, she hadn’t really given the idea much entertainment. Boys and being romantic with them weren’t really things she felt like she much cared for nowadays. Nobody ever really seemed to catch her attention or interest her, because frankly every boy at her school was pretty boring.

Well, she had Inari, but there was _not a chance in hell_ that she would _ever_ consider him a romantic interest. He was lucky that she could call him a friend most days.

“I mean, it doesn’t sound like it would be any different from any normal kiss, honestly,” she answered. “It’s just under a plant, that’s the only thing I see as different.”

“You’re missing the point!” Kana shot back, the feverance in her reply making Futaba squint somewhat curiously. “It’s the meaning behind it, and it goes along with the fun and love of Christmas time! Haven’t you ever been in love around Christmas?”

Futaba’s bottom lip pulled in as she squinted at the screen.

“What does that matter?” she found herself asking, feeling a bit off put by the insistence her friend was showing.

The screen stayed still for a moment before Kana’s typing bubble started to appear again. Futaba leaned closer to the monitor, beginning to get both irritated yet curious all the same by Kana’s persistence with the idea. After a moment a message came through.

“Futaba-chan, have you ever even been in love before?”

 _Oh_ , that really caught her off guard.

Futaba sat up in her chair, not exactly sure what to say. It was probably the first time she’d ever been asked something so personal, and the first time she’d ever really found herself thinking about something like that, at least in a long time anyways. In love with someone? What a bold question, and a bold thought at that. She wasn’t really sure if she’d ever really even recognized the emotion of it before.

One can only learn so much about romance and emotions from anime and stories. It took some real world experience to be able to truly understand all that.

She stared at the monitor for a moment, hands finding themselves under her chin as she sat somehow comfortably propped by her legs in her computer chair, pouting as she stared into the blue light of the screen without paying attention to a single word dotted across it. She contemplated the idea, wondering if at any point she’d ever really felt that way about someone. Really only within the past year had she even really opened herself up to the social aspect of the world, at least since middle school anyways. And middle school was useless in that regard, her having been _far_ too young to even consider any of her classmates that way. Back then boys were gross and annoying, and she would rather fawn over heroes like the Power Rangers than some booger picking kid any day of the week. Power Rangers were fun to fantasize about, they wouldn’t get nasty nose garbage in your meticulously wired computer circuits.

She shuddered violently at the thought.

But she was older now, things had changed. Just as she had grown up, so had the world around her, and more importantly in this case, so had the boys. She noticed things about guys more and did find herself caring at least a _little_ bit more about things like that. She found that she had preferences, as well as personal likes and dislikes considering aspects of the opposite sex she had found herself at least somewhat attracted to. For example, big muscles weren’t necessarily her thing but she knew she liked tall boys and glasses. Sure even, she had definitely found herself fantasizing once or twice about being some damsel in some silly hero story, secretly finding herself wishing she could be protected and saved by some strong handsome guy. She hated to admit that part of her was definitely a pining little thing, wanting to be able to experience that protected feeling one seems to only be able to obtain being that of some helpless princess. Was that what romance was supposed to be like? She wasn’t entirely sure. But if nothing else she could at least accept the fact that it was something she thought about on occasion.

But was there anybody that she necessarily felt that she wanted that with? Not likely. Her friends were all kind of just… friends to her? The closest person in her life right at this moment was probably Inar- forgive her, _Yusuke_ . But she didn't feel romantically towards him even remotely. Just because they went to school together didn’t mean she was going to start seeing him like _that_.

She was pretty sure she’d rather die.

So she remained there, stuck on this question her friend gave her. She felt almost nervous to answer, wondering if Kana was starting to get impatient or was judging her on her long period of time before giving her an answer. She shook her head, knowing better than to start thinking the worst of her friends, but still feeling a little unnerved about it all the same. She didn’t want her friend to start thinking less of her or that she was weird because she hadn’t really experienced something like that yet. She was fifteen, she was supposed to have had crushes already by now, right?

She chewed on the inside of her lip, glancing at her keyboard timidly as her fingertips grazed the letters that would help her spell out the word “no”.

And then her phone buzzed, vibrating against and lighting up the right side of her desk.

She peeled her hands away from the keyboard, moving her right hand over to her smartphone laying on the desk and picking it up, placing it in both of her hands between her legs. She opened it with a few moves of her complicated puzzle lock, automatically going to the app that would lead her to whatever notification rested within the workings of it. Her chat messaging app opened with a brilliant red, making her curious as to who would be sending her a message so late in the night, and opened to a familiar Chat ID profile picture sitting in the top left corner of the screen.

Akira: Hey, Futaba! I should be back in Shibuya at about 7PM tomorrow. Can’t wait to see you! :)

Oh, Akira.

Right. She had forgotten that he was going to be in town for a few days to see everyone for Christmas.

And like nothing, her heart started to beat a little more prominently at the thought of seeing him again.

Oh.

_Oh._

How in the hell could she have forgotten?

Akira was always such an enigma. He was viewed on a different plane than just about anybody she had ever met. Ever since the Phantom Thieves had taken the time to help her through her past traumas and save her from, well, _herself_ , life had changed drastically for her. She had gained confidence, gained friends, and gained a newfound respect for herself that she had long forgotten since believing so deeply that she had been the cause of her mother’s passing. Of course, in reality, it had nothing to do with her at all, but considering all the trauma and how heavily some terrible people tried to push that idea on her, it was a pretty hard thing to overcome.

Even after all was said and done though and she had been freed from her personal tomb, things weren’t easy. Being out in public was scary to her, and being around others in general was even scarier. Even her friends, the people who had literally gone and saved her, took a bit of getting used to for her to be able to feel comfortable around them. Every step of it took time and every team member had to wait patiently for her to be able to get past that initial fear.

Except for Akira. Akira had been different from the very beginning.

She never once feared being around him. He was so easy to be with and made her feel incredibly safe. It was a feeling she had felt she could only obtain from the comfort of Sojiro, and yet Akira had managed to work it into Futaba’s life so easily, without barely ever having poked or prodded at her, unlike the others (who she knows did so lovingly). She didn’t get it at all.

He had been the first person to take her out into the town and try to enjoy things like normal people did. Through every group meet up, he was always there with her and had promised to be there with her (and for whatever reason, that made it so much easier to deal with). And he had helped her finish her promise list last year that she had been using as a mechanism to fight back against all her fears and anxieties.

Well, he almost did anyways.

There was still one thing left that they never really got to, considering how last year’s Christmas had gone anyways. And it was the one thing that had made this year a slight bit more difficult to go through than it maybe normally would have.

The thing she had wanted to talk to him about last Christmas, but had never gotten the chance. She’d almost forgotten.

Her fingers found their way over to her keyboard again.

“Maybe.” she tentatively replied, feeling wishy-washy over the certainty of that statement just as soon as she’d sent it.

She was almost instantly met with an excited burst of replies.

“What!”

“Really!”

“Who is it!”

“You have to tell me!”

“You can’t say that and hold back now!”

The messages came in again and again, covered in such elation that it felt somewhat overwhelming to read. Futaba shook her head, feeling a bit silly at doing so despite knowing that Kana couldn’t see any of what she was doing. She glanced over at her phone, still open on her conversation with Akira and lighting up the side of her desk with his words and face.

She moved to type again.

“I don’t need to say, it’s a secret.”

She smirked and adjusted her glasses, feeling satisfied with her answer. What exactly would it mean to Kana anyways? She didn’t know her friends very well, even from the very few mentions that she had given about them. Usually their conversations were to do with new things like school or interesting anime they were watching together, and not so much outside of that. Even Kana didn’t talk about friends or boys very much, so it shouldn’t matter much anyways.

Besides, she wasn’t super sure if it was right for her to assume those feelings anyways. She had no idea for certain.

“Fine!” Kana conceded, earning Futaba a victory smile. She could hear the victory jingle of one of her favorite video games playing in her head as she raised her arms and gave a small jig. That smile quickly disappeared though as she read the following message.

“Are you going to try to kiss them?”

She paused, arms lowering back down to her sides.

Kiss? Kiss who? What?

Kiss _Akira_?

Futaba felt her face heat up exponentially.

“Why would I do something like that?” she asked, hands suddenly shaking as she tried to type out the response. This new thought was beginning to plague every corner of her mind.

“Because it’s Christmas, duh!” Kana answered. “And if you kiss under the mistletoe it’ll be the most romantic thing ever! Like a Christmas dream come true!”

Futaba cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow, noticing that Kana had basically repeated her prior statement. Was that really all that she saw as a successful Christmas? Futaba had saved the world with her friends last year, having gone through disaster after disaster in a grand attempt to plunge the world out of the darkness it so desperately desired to be tainted in. _That_ to her felt like a more satisfying Christmas victory than what her friend was implying.

In comparison a kiss seemed so… boring? But she supposed considering Kana had likely never been in something as treacherous and exciting as the Phantom Thieves before, maybe that truly was her grand victory.

Even despite that, boy, Kana liked to use exclamation points to bring her points across. Everything was exciting to her.

Futaba looked back at her screen as a new message popped up.

“I know I’m going to do it! This is going to be the year!” she cheered.

Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a second.

“You’re going to kiss someone?” Futaba asked hurriedly, practically slamming the enter key as soon as her message was drafted. She waited anxiously as the bubble indicating her friend was typing loomed over the chat box.

“Yep!” she replied. “There’s a guy in my class that I’ve been talking to for a while, and when we decorated the classroom I put a mistletoe up over the door! I’m going to wait for the right moment and pluck one on him, and then my Christmas wish list will be completed!”

Futaba glared at the screen, suddenly feeling an intense dislike for what she’d read. That idea sounded so trivial, and yet it fueled her with this burning need to compete against it.

It was like Kana-chan was about to move into some unknown territory. Things that Futaba hadn’t even considered trying or wanting to do.

Kana was about to level up another step on the social ladder without her. There was no way she was going to let that happen sitting down. Not a chance.

“I’m going to do that too, then!” she quickly typed out, sending the message with a fury she hadn’t quite expected to come from her. She placed her hands on her knees as soon as it popped up on the screen, eagerly awaiting the response that it would elicit from her friend. She could feel her fingernails digging into the skin over her knees as she waited.

Finally, a reply popped up.

“That’s awesome, Futaba-chan! I want to know every detail of how it goes!”

Futaba smirked, fingers stretching over her keys as she moved over her desired letters.

“It’ll be a piece of cake! It’s going to be _suuuper_ romantic, just you wait!”

Her friend took no hesitation in replying.

“I’m so excited! I can’t wait to hear all about it!”

Futaba chuckled, leaning back in her chair and rubbing underneath her nose with that same confident smirk as though she had won an intense battle. Shadows in the Metaverse were nothing compared to satisfying the intense need to show her friend that she too could be on the same social scale. Nothing would stop her. Besides, it was going to be easy, all she would have to do is get a kiss under the mistlet-

Her brain suddenly halted as that thought process came through.

A kiss. Under the mistletoe.

And that meant that she…

She looked at her phone again, the screen still bright as could be (damn her for not setting it to go back to sleep at an earlier time), and the text message she’d received earlier still clear as day.

Akira: Hey, Futaba! I should be back in Shibuya at about 7PM tomorrow. Can’t wait to see you! :)

Akira.

_Akira._

_AKIRA._

She had basically just told Kana that she was going to kiss Akira under the mistletoe.

With her face growing hotter and her body slumping backwards into her chair, suddenly she wasn’t feeling so confident anymore.

* * *

 

“Sojiro!” Futaba yelled from the attic, desperately hunting through one of the boxes by the staircase labeled ‘Christmas’. “Do you know if we have any mistletoe!”

“What are you asking for?” he answered back, making his way up the stairs with a towel and glass in hand. “I couldn’t hear you.”

She looked at him determinedly from her perched position on the floor as he made his way into her field of view, stopping on one of the lower stairs.

“Mistletoe, you know, that stuff that you like hang from the ceiling. It’s a Christmas decoration.” she explained.

He raised an eyebrow, “Okay, yeah, I know what mistletoe is.” he said. He placed one of his hands on his hips, the other holding both the towel and cup in hand. “Why are you looking for that? This place is already pretty decorated, don’t you think?” he asked, gesturing his hand around the bannister and down the stairs.

Sure enough, he was right about that. A week or two ago the two of them along with a good few of the former Phantom Thieves had gotten together to decorate the inside of LeBlanc for the Christmas season. All over there were wreaths, decorated garland and tinsel, lights and ornaments, and even a small tree downstairs between the counter and entrance to the cafe. They hadn’t gotten to do much of that last year considering the circumstances and events that were taking place, so Haru had feverently suggested that they give the place a touch up to welcome in the holiday season. Luckily it was an idea that Sojiro hardly seemed against, and the crew had spent a large majority of the day decorating. It was nice actually, getting to do something that celebrated the time of year rather than bustle around trying to beat out a plethora of rotten adults trying to ruin it.

Personally to Futaba, it would have been a lot better if all of them had been able to be there. But she and the rest of them all knew why that hadn’t been possible.

Futaba shook her head, “Yeah, but I need mistletoe. It’s really important.”

Sojiro’s lip curled in and he started to give her a suspicious glare, “Why so interested in that all of a sudden? You didn’t care about that when we were decorating this place a few weeks ago.” He leaned his upper body forward, “Is something going on that I need to know about?”

She paused, suddenly beginning to feel flustered as she realized what she was asking for might be implying to him. She shook her head, again, this time much more feverishly.

“N-nothing like that!” she assured, waving her hands somewhat frantically in front of her. “I-I just read somewhere online that it was an important decoration. It’s meant to help protect the family it’s under from things like poison, and it helps promote life and fertility.”

Sojiro’s glare got a touch harder.

“I don’t mean anything weird by it!” she shouted. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Sojiro!” she demanded with a pout. She could feel her face getting redder by the second.

Sojiro’s glare almost immediately softened, and he fell into a smile as he chuckled. “I’m just messin’ with you, kiddo.” he assured. He tossed the towel he was holding back into his other hand and began to finish his process with drying the cup he was holding. “I’m not super sure if we have any mistletoe in here or anything, but that box would be the place to find it. If not there, I can always run out and try to find some for you if you need me to.”

Futaba glanced at her phone on the floor beside her, noting that it was about 6:45.

That would be way too late.

“No it’s fine!” she said, quickly ducking her head back into the large cardboard box. “I’ll find it! And if I don’t I’ll figure something out, no worries!”

Sojiro squinted up at her, his expression somewhat confused, but he inevitably just shrugged and turned to head back down the stairs.

“Alright, lemme know if you need something. Dinner’s probably gunna be ready soon so listen out for me calling you down, alright?” he said as he headed out of the room.

“Sure thing!” she yelled back, continuing her frantic search without looking up from the inside of the box.

Damn it all, if school had let out just a bit earlier she could have already found what she was looking for and been completely ready. Unfortunately for her though, since it was almost the end of the year they had to finish up with all sorts of dumb things like final projects and assignments that she honestly had zero interest in participating in. She was doing fine in school, things like that weren’t going to drastically affect her grade or anything like that. Maybe they would for someone like Ryuji, but not her. And on top of that she had to go home afterwards and change out of her annoying and uncomfortable school uniform that she detested beyond words. Regardless of how “cute” it made her look, per observation of all her friends, she would much rather be in her normal clothes.

Going to high school wasn’t really all it was cracked up to be.

She pushed aside another pile of Christmas themed junk in the box, sighing as she looked over what was likely the fifth time she had seen that unsightly box of green ornaments laying at the bottom. She sat back and pulled herself out of the box, feeling somewhat defeated after having looked inside it for what felt like an eternity. At this point it didn’t seem like she’d be having much luck.

She took the time to glance around the room she was in, feeling a bit reminiscent as it looked almost exactly the same as it had since Akira had last left it. They had kept his bedding and everything up there all this time, all of it just waiting to be used yet again by its original tenant. He had actually stayed there with them a good few times at this point, especially during the summer season while everyone was on vacation, and so they really saw no need in ridding of everything when he was likely to come back down every now and again. They’d even suggested getting him better accomodations before, but he denied it saying he was comfortable with what he’d dealt with before. He was always so easy to please.

Regardless of how far away he lived now, Akira was still family to all of them. They wanted nothing more than to make any time he could spend with them as easy going as possible.

Futaba sighed again, standing up from her spot on the floor and stretching out her limbs which had become a bit cramped from all the squatting around. Just as she was about to give up and make her way back downstairs to badger Sojiro about dinner, something in the box beside her managed to catch her eye. Curiously she looked down closer, noticing a red silk ribbon that had been hiding underneath another box inside of the cardboard. As she bent down to inspect it further, she could see one or two white beads poking out next to the the silk, and she moved her fingers down towards it, picking the object up by its smooth silk. As she pulled it out, her eyes widened excitedly as the whole object surfaced and revealed to her exactly what she was looking for.

A mistletoe was now in her hand, its green stems and white beads held up by a cute red ribbon at the top.

She jumped up excitedly with a victory shout, beaming like the champion heroine of a fantasy RPG. She quickly settled down afterwards though, not wanting to call too much attention down to Sojiro over her find.

She glanced down at the mistletoe in her hand, grazing over its color and design and being somewhat captivated by its simplistic beauty. She had seen a lot of mistletoes online in her research efforts from last night, working very hard to find what she needed to be looking for so her plan for today could come to fruition, but it was a different story seeing one in person. It wasn’t any particularly special thing really, hardly as exciting as maybe she would have liked to see, but it was still something nice to look at nonetheless. It probably helped a lot that she had been looking for it as hard as she had been.

She glanced down at her phone again, still lit up from her checking it earlier

6:50.

_Shit._

She hurriedly glanced around the room, luckily quickly spotting what she was looking for. She jogged over to the other side of the room next to Akira’s bed, grabbing the chair that sat between it and the workbench by the wall. She also looked on top of the bench and found a ball of silk yarn that had likely been there for some time. With her finds she made her way towards the center of the room, looking up and seeing one of the bannisters that the ceiling was dotted with. Without hesitating, she worked to move her chair over in a position that would help her reach one of the center bannisters, putting it in place and setting her bare foot on top of it, shaking it just a bit to make sure she would have ample support underneath it. Once she was satisfied, she hoisted herself up the rest of the way with her leg and placed her other foot on he smooth wood, losing her balance for a mere second before maintaining it once again.

Feeling good about how she was balanced, she grabbed at a strand off of the silk yarn and aimed with one eye closed up towards the ceiling. With as best precision as she could manage, she threw the ball up at the bannister, mentally cheering herself on as it did exactly what she wanted and wrapped itself around it. The ball landed on the floor with a bounce next to her, but she hardly needed anything more from it as the string she held in her hand and the string from the rest of the ball were now loosely hung around the bannister.

Tentatively she took the mistletoe in her other hand, working to grab at the silk string and wrap it around the mistletoe. She stuck her tongue out as she worked, struggling with having so many things in her hands and trying to use every bit of strength her fingers could muster to tie this string around the mistletoe. She wasn’t really sure if she was doing much of a good job or not, but she was at least hopeful that her shoddy yarn work was at least getting the job done.

She was a computer nerd, not a handy person. Manual stuff like this wasn’t really her thing. Despite that, she was still determined to get this set up. This was one quest she would have completed.

Quickly she finished tying off the mistletoe, feeling somewhat satisfied as she let it go and it hung there in the air in front of her body. She was about to leave it at that, placing her hands on her hips and feeling pretty good about where it was placed. That is, until she remembered from all the pictures that she had seen that mistletoes were supposed to be much higher over the recipients faces than she had placed it.

The mental image of Akira walking into the room and having a mistletoe hit him in the face washed over Futaba’s mind.

Oh no, that was not going to work.

She took the long end of the yarn in her hand, hoping that she had looped it in a way that she could pull on it and bring the large part of the loop to close more. To her satisfaction she had, and she worked to pull the string down as the mistletoe went up higher into the air, using her other hand to hold onto it for support just incase it lost some yarn and fell. The last thing she wanted was for it to fall and somehow mess up by hitting the floor. Sure it wasn't all that fragile, but this was her key item at the time and and she needed it to stay in stable condition!

This quest had to go off without a hitch, it just had to.

As the mistletoe went higher, she stood further up on her toes, reaching up along with it as she pulled the string more and more. Eventually she found it at a place she felt was ideal, positioning the mistletoe just a bit out of her arm’s reach as she stood balancing on her toes. It likely still wouldn’t sit too much farther above Akira’s head, damn his height, but it was sure to do well enough for her purposes.

Mistletoe still in hand, she took her other hand and brought the excess string to her mouth, grasping it in her lips and finding it between her teeth. She grinded her teeth against the string, allowing it to separate and rid of all the excess now gently falling to the floor that was originally hanging off from the mistletoe.

As she let her hand fall away from the mistletoe, feeling content with the fact that it was now hanging freely in the air without her help, the displacement of her arm was suddenly beginning to bring her off balance. Quickly she shifted her body, attempting to readjust herself from her sudden loss, but it was becoming evident that she may have done so far too late. She found herself losing what little foot she had with the chair underneath her feet, her body falling forward then backwards before fully committing to descending towards the ground.

She let out a small yelp and shut her eyes as she fell, bracing for the impact with the ground she was sure to meet. Just as she had resigned to her fate and the pain that was likely to come with it, she suddenly felt herself impact with something far more forgiving than that of the cold wooden floor below her.

In fact, said impacted object felt a lot warmer than she’d expected.

Opening her eyes out of newly sparked curiosity, she suddenly found herself face to face with the glasses wearing boy that she had become so familiar with being around there. Her eyes widened as she met his grey eyes, looking just as surprised as hers likely did.

“Whoa, you okay there, Futaba?” Akira asked, his voice laced with genuine concern.

Futaba’s lips pulled in as her face quickly turned red as a tomato, now fully realizing she was being cradled in his arms following her near demise with the floor. She hadn’t even noticed him come into the room, and hadn’t heard the bell ring downstairs at all. Maybe it was just because she had been so distracted, but she could have sworn she should have heard something noting his arrival there.

Then again though, this _was_ the former leader of the Phantom Thieves they were talking about.

Remembering that she was definitely still in Akira’s arms, she gave him one certain nod with a simple “Hmph!” before glancing down towards the ground in a somewhat desperate plea for him to set her down. He promptly did so, smiling all the while with a small chuckle as she turned away and tried to recompose herself.

“Sorry if I interrupted something.” he said kindly. “I just got here and was coming up to drop off my stuff. I didn’t expect to see you falling though.”

She let out a sigh and shook her head, rubbing her face to try to rid of some of the blush she knew was coating it before turning back around to face him.

“I-it was an accident,” she explained briefly. “I was just trying to hang something up, I didn’t mean to lose my balance like that.”

He placed a hand in his jeans pocket. “Well, be more careful next time. I’m glad I was up here to catch you.” He cocked his head to the side and gave her a small smile. “That’s a really cute shirt by the way, I don’t think I’ve seen you wear that color before.”

She looked down at herself, now remembering that she was wearing some Christmas shirt that Sojiro had given her a few weeks ago. It wasn’t terribly different stylistically from a shirt that she wore a lot, one with white and black sleeves and all, but this one was definitely a lot different in color. Rather than black, it was red, white, and green, looking incredibly tacky but screaming Christmas about as loudly as it possibly could. In bold white letters across her chest was the word “JOY”, which she figured was an English word associated with Christmas in some way, but she just wasn’t really interested enough to look it up.

In truth she had mostly worn it for Sojiro, hoping that wearing it would make him happy because she liked something he’d bought her. But deep down she definitely was also hoping that it would help her in her quest.

And now her _main_ key item was right in front of her, in the flesh.

“Thanks!” she said with an elated smile. “Sojiro bought it for me. I thought I should wear it, with it being Christmas and all!”

He laughed, “You didn’t want to save it for the actual day though? Christmas is still like four days away.”

She shook her head, “Nah, I didn’t want to wait. I want to be able to celebrate as much as I can as soon as I can! It’s only once a year after all!”

 _Besides_ , she thought idly, _I’d rather celebrate Christmas with you around._

Oh wow, where did that thought come from? She could feel the heat returning to her face again.

He smiled. “I understand that. This year is definitely a lot different than last year was, huh?”

The genuinity of the question caught her somewhat off guard, and she was almost forced to look back on everything from last year yet again. Their march towards Christmas had been a lot less than ideal last year with all that occurred, and they definitely hadn’t gotten much of a chance to really enjoy or celebrate the season. It was basically one catastrophe after another, and they had spent the entirety of Christmas Eve literally attempting to save the world. Christmas had hardly even really been a thought on their minds.

But even so, she and Akira had actually spent a little bit of time together then, right in the very room they were standing in now, but even then the conversation between them was less than ideal. Rather than being elated and happy with all they’d accomplished, a lot of it was Futaba having to reel with the fact that Akira was hiding something from her. She knew why now, and it had definitely been for good reason, but it didn’t make that moment any less difficult for her to think about even now.

She’d wanted to say something to him then, something important that she had honestly let go and nearly forgotten about, but there were definitely more pressing matters at hand at the time. But now, nearly a year later, they didn’t have anything else in the way.

The quest. She needed to focus on her quest.

She found herself nodding at his earlier remark, “You can say that again.”

He moved one hand to his neck and lolled his head with his eyes closed, moving over closer to her to remove some of the distance she had made after he set her back down on the ground. Futaba watched intently as he moved evidently closer to the mistletoe she had placed above them, groaning internally as she noticed it just barely skated above his head, realizing that in her grand fall it must have been pulled down a bit. She could only hope he wouldn’t walk much closer to it.

He opened his eyes again, granting her the gaze of the shining grey that rested in his irises and causing her heart to pitter patter in a way that she found a bit unexpected. Granted, it had done that a number of times when looking at him before, but something about this time was different.

Maybe it was just because of how nervous she was about her task at hand. That was all it was, right?

He looked at her curiously, “You have a determined look on your face, something on your mind?”

Her eyes perked up a bit, mouth falling slightly agape as she stared up at him after he asked the question.

“N-no, not really.” she answered, mentally cursing herself as she couldn’t even find herself to be very convincing.

He was right under the mistletoe now. Had he not even noticed it?

He raised an eyebrow. “I can usually tell if something’s up with you, Futaba. I’ve been around you for a day or two I’d like to think,” he reasoned.

Futaba smiled nervously. “I-it’s nothing!”

Akira looked at her a bit more, the skepticism not entirely wavering, but eventually just shrugged and placed both of his hands in his pockets.

“Alright, if you say so,” he said, dismissing the accusation out of nowhere. “I think Sojiro said dinner was about done, so I guess we should probably head downstairs, yeah?” He beamed, “I haven’t had his curry in ages it feels like, I can’t wait to delve into some of that again.”

Her eyes widened as he turned to make his way out of the room, his stomach evidently calling the shots at this point and bringing him to turn towards the smell she was only now noticing wafting into the attic. This wasn’t what she wanted though! If he left now there was no way she’d be able to bring him back upstairs to achieve her goal without looking incredibly suspicious!

She couldn’t let her key item walk away now.

With a surge of confidence she couldn't possibly have known the origin of, she raised her voice. “A-Akira! Hold on a second!” she commanded, stepping forward towards him.

He turned back around as the words left her mouth, somewhat surprised by her sudden demand.

“Huh? Need someth-”

Suddenly he found his mouth covered, completely interrupting him and what he was saying as he now found himself lurched forward and pulled by the collar of his shirt into Futaba’s face, their lips making contact with one another.

Futaba truly had no idea what she was doing or what had brought her to this point. Maybe it was all the manga she’d read, or all the anime scenes she’d watched that had brought about similar results, but without her truly grasping what was happening, she now found herself kissing Akira Kurusu under the mistletoe she had set up.

The feeling was ultimately foreign to her, her being completely unsure of if she was doing things correctly or not. At the time, all she could truly start registering was how warm he felt, and how warm her face now was being pumped full of blood and being in such close proximity to his. Smaller things like their noses bumping into one another or their glasses having clacked just a little bit came to mind for extremely brief moments, but she was beginning to ignore all that.

Strangely enough, she was starting to notice that more than anything, she really _liked_ this feeling. It was nothing that she’d ever have particularly expected to like, but she did, a lot.

And she especially liked who it was with. That certainly helped.

Suddenly realizing she had kept him held there for what to her felt like an eternity, she let go, releasing his lips and loosening the grip she had on his collar. Slowly she opened her eyes back up, her lips parted ever so slightly, but was quickly deterred from the confidence she had felt just mere moments earlier when she noticed the look he was giving her. It was clear that he was surprised, possibly in shock over the whole event, and his lips were parted as well, giving him a very uncertain look. His pupils were very small and his eyes were wide, just giving his whole expression a look that as a whole Futaba couldn’t quite identify.

The one thing she could say though was that the tough and satisfied demeanor she had just a minute ago was now fading into non-existence.

“I-I-I…” she started, the grip she had on him loosening to nothing as she pulled her now shaking hands away from him. “A-Akira, I… I don’t know what… I just…” She started to back away slowly, pulling her arms close to her body.

She couldn’t find the words she wanted to say. Everything slowly started to feel like it was falling apart in front of her, the ground holding her up breaking beneath her feet.

What the hell had she been thinking? You can’t just force a kiss onto someone, that’s incredibly rude and nonconsensual! Why in the world had she thought that it would be a good idea to just sneak up on him like that? He was probably in so much shock that he could barely stand it.

Her mind clouded over, fear and uncertainty now singing in her brain like an endless song. She had been so determined and blinded by this silly little mission of hers, not even once thinking about the fact that maybe the boy she was going to force to be a part of it didn’t want her doing such a thing. Futaba had never taken the time to ask, but maybe he liked someone else. Maybe he had a girlfriend back in his hometown that he had just never mentioned to her before. And she could have just gone and ignored the reasoning of all of that for her own selfish desires.

Was she being selfish? Did she just do something to hurt him? She was already losing her mind over the possibility.

It wasn’t fair, you can’t do that sort of thing to somebody just because you-

“Futaba…?” she heard him breathe.

Futaba looked up and across the room at him nervously, feeling incredibly afraid to meet his gaze. She could only imagine the anger and distrust that she would meet in his eyes after what she’d just done.

But, to her extreme surprise, that’s not what she saw at all.

Looking at Akira, she could see that a flush of color had covered his face, his cheeks now a lot more pink than they had been a moment ago. She could also see that his eyes were wide and bright, maintaining much less anger than she would have expected, yet more so in some sort of curious surprise.

She could have argued that he looked… somewhat pleased? Was she reading that totally wrong though?

She wasn’t good with this stuff.

“Futaba, are you okay?” he asked suddenly, catching her by surprise.

“Wh-what?” she asked cautiously, subconsciously taking another step away from him.

He walked forward towards her, making her a bit nervous as she got closer to her, and closing her eyes as she watched one of his hands move over towards her face. She braced for something, not exactly knowing what that might be, but then felt nothing more than a very tender thumb running underneath her right eye as the rest of a hand cupped the side of her face.

“Why are you upset, Futaba?” he asked gingerly, prompting her to look up at him again. Her heart withered as she looked at him and saw his face yet again laced with the same look of concern as earlier, though this time it looked a bit more hurt. “What’s going on?”

She hesitated, biting the inside of her lip and not really knowing what to say.

He pressed her again, “Come on, Futaba. You know what we talked about before, you don't need to hide what’s on your mind from me if something’s bothering you.” He idly pushed a piece of hair that was in her face away from it. “And clearly there’s something going on.”

She let out a shaky breath, knowing full well that hiding things like that from him was a losing game, especially considering how perceptive he was. She just didn’t exactly know how to go about saying it.

How was she even planning on explaining herself from the get-go? Had she not thought this through at all?

“I-I…” she started, looking down and away from him as she attempted to get a grip on her thoughts. “I was trying to complete a quest…” she said, realizing that her wording probably wasn’t going to make much sense at all.

He took her by surprise yet again though.

“A quest?” he asked. “You mean like, to kiss me?”

She looked up at him with her eyes wide, the pure surprise she felt from him so easily understanding what she meant coating every inch of her face.

“I-I mean…” she said, her words still flipping on her tongue as she tried to get them out. Her gaze left his again as her ramble started back up, “I-it was more than just that… But, y-yeah. I-it was dumb, I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that to you without asking, i-it wasn’t right. I’m-”

Akira took his index finger and placed it lightly over her lips, instantly quieting her. She looked at him and lightly gasped as she watched an incredibly wholesome smile spread across his lips, his eyes looking into her own with such a warmth she could feel it throughout her entire body.

“Futaba,” he started, the smoothness his voice had suddenly obtained sending a slight chill through her spine. She suddenly felt the warmth of his hand envelop the top of her head with a touch that felt incredibly loving, bringing a soothing familiarity to her.

“If you had wanted a kiss, you could have just asked me instead.”

She could feel her heart practically stop.

What exactly was he trying to imply with a statement like that?

“I-I… I don’t…” she breathed. She wasn’t really sure what to say anymore.

Akira chuckled. “If you’re trying to apologize for that, you don’t need to,” he assured, moving his index away from her face. “I honestly really enjoyed that. I just wasn’t expecting it is all.”

“Y-you… You did?” she asked hesitantly.

He nodded, “Of course I did. It’s not often the girl you like just decides to up and kiss you out of nowhere. Honestly a pretty huge surprise if you really think about it.”

Wait.

The girl you like?

Talking in reference to her?

The girl he likes, is her.

Futaba is the girl he likes.

…

_Oh._

That was certainly unexpected.

Futaba looked up at him somewhat curiously. “You… _like_ me?” she asked.

Akira laughed heartily, the sweet sounds of it starting to send her into a slight tizzy.

“Of course I do. Are you really all that surprised?” he asked. “I wanted to see you more than anybody here for Christmas. It was part of why I came here.”

Futaba paused, remembering the text message she had gotten from him the night before. Sure, it was a little bit late so Akira coming to LeBlanc first was far from a crazy idea, but he definitely hadn’t noted that he was planning on making any other stops beforehand. If he had wanted to be around the others that day too, he would have made an effort to have them all invited over or for them to all go out somewhere that night. But instead he hadn’t done that at all, and had only made plans to spend the evening with Futaba and Sojiro.

He had made plans to spend the evening with her.

He shook his head with a carefree smile. “I just didn’t expect to get ambushed like this. What kind of crazy idea did you have going on in your head to set all this up?”

She paused at the question, but soon clenched her fists and gave him a determined glare. “I-it was because of what Kana-chan told me!”

He raised an eyebrow and placed his hands casually in his pockets. “Kana-chan? Your friend we helped last year?”

She nodded once. “Mhm!” she confirmed. “Kana was telling me about how mistletoe kisses are really romantic and special, and she said that she was going to get to kiss someone underneath the mistletoe today! But there was no way I was going to let her do that without me getting the chance to do it too, I can’t let her one up me! So that’s why I… I mean, that’s why…” she started to trail off. She was suddenly feeling a lot more self conscious about the whole thing.

Akira chuckled again, “Still with that rivalry, huh?” he noted. He glanced off to the side, staring up at Futaba’s earlier handywork. “So the mistletoe you almost killed yourself over was for this whole thing?”

Futaba didn’t say anything, but she gave him a nod.

He looked back down at her again, a look of pure admiration in his eyes, “That’s really adorable, I gotta admit,” he praised, placing his hand back on top of her head. “You went to surprising lengths to complete this one.”

She felt another round of blush covering her face at his praise.

“I-I… I just…” she pushed, trying really hard to figure out what she wanted to say. She watched him look at her somewhat expectantly, giving her a bit of a push to reach the destination her words were desperately trying to grasp at. “I didn’t really do this just because of like… a quest. O-or because of Kana-chan!” she argued, giving him that incredibly determined look again.

He didn’t say anything, but cocked his head to the side curiously.

She rubbed her lips together nervously, “I-I remember wanting to tell you last year! But everything was bad and we couldn’t talk about it so I forgot. A-and you were gone for so long later on and I didn’t get to say it. But I mean… I just…” she trailed off again and looked back down at the floor.

He smiled and carefully moved his hand from her head to her chin, bringing her face back up to look at him again.

“You can talk to me, Futaba. You know that,” he assured sweetly.

She paused, caught in a bit of a trance by the look in his eyes, but then quickly nodded and did her best to continue on.

“I wanted to tell you that… That we never managed to finish the last part of my promise list.”

Akira’s eyes widened. “Oh? Oh yeah, I guess we actually didn’t, did we?” He frowned. “I’d forgotten about that, why didn’t you tell me?”

She looked at him sadly, “With everything going on, it kind of didn't matter much anymore.”

He shook his head. “Of course it matters, Futaba. I promised you that I was going to help you finish that, and it isn’t fair of me to just push it aside, regardless of what was going on.”

She glanced off to the side nervously. “Well, it doesn’t really matter to me anymore, because I kinda didn’t want to finish it anyways.”

He raised a eyebrow at that. “Hm? What do you mean?”

She looked at him again, “My last wish on my promise list was… that I’d be okay being without you. And while I think I did complete that, because I did okay while you were gone at school, it wasn’t something I want to _keep_ doing.”

Akira blinked, not entirely sure how to react. Futaba just continued on.

“I realized last year that… I really prefer to be around you,” she said. “I like being with you and I’m always sad when you’re gone. Every time that you come back home is like… the best time. But I kind of pushed all of that aside because we had to get back to reality. You had to go home, and I had to start going to school again because I promised myself I would. And I put all of these feelings on the backburner because I wanted to focus on all that stuff and…”

Futaba completely trailed off her train of thought. She just stared sadly off to the side, pretty spent on everything she wanted to say.

She hadn’t even realized that was namely the root of it all. This whole time she did actually have feelings for Akira, but she had largely forgotten about all of that so she could worry about other things. Life had been so busy for all of them, even after everything with the Phantom Thieves had finally come to a close, and she had forgotten to take the time to work through all those feelings she may or may not have possessed. She had wanted to tell him about that so long ago, to try and get a sense of what she felt and why, but everything just kept getting in the way.

She had been growing up a bunch and hadn’t even really realized it. Not even taking the time to wonder about fun little fantasies and enjoyable things like a crush? Maybe she had leveled up far beyond Kana-chan after all.

She didn’t know if that was necessarily a good thing now that she thought about it.

Akira smiled down at her anyways, replacing his hand back on top of her head just like how he knew she liked, gaining her attention yet again.

“School’s almost over, you know,” he said out of nowhere.

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, unsure of his meaning by those words. “What does that have to do with anything?”

He chuckled. “Well, the sooner school ends, the sooner I can come back down here, right?”

Her lips parted slightly, taking in what he said somewhat inquisitively. She knew that he was planning on coming back to Tokyo once the school year was over. He had mentioned it plenty of times both to her and the rest of the group, and he had actually already been in the process of working on being accepted into one of the city’s best colleges (unsurprisingly the one that Makoto also happened to attend). But the comment seemed a little offhanded regardless.

She nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He smirked playfully. “Well then, that means that you’ll have to fix your promise list. Because I’m going to be back, and you won’t have to be without me anymore,” he said with a wink.

Oh.

_Oh._

A sudden beaming smile spread across her face.

“I… I think I would like that a lot,” she said happily.

“Me too,” he replied easily.

Without warning, Futaba found herself in an embrace with Akira. She melded into it without an ounce of hesitation, wrapping her arms around his torso and immediately being immersed by the intense warmth emanating from his body. She sighed contently, enjoying every bit of his touch and only now realizing just how much she had missed feeling it.

It had been way too long since he had been back home. Now she never wanted him to leave.

“You know,” he spoke, Futaba feeling the rumble from his chest against her cheek. “My earlier offer still stands.”

She glanced up with her head, face not leaving the warmth of his chest. “Offer for what?” she asked.

He laughed, “I said earlier, if you wanted a kiss you could just ask for one. And I’m just reminding you of that.”

“O-oh…” she said, feeling her face heat up again, which now against Akira’s chest felt like the heat of an oven. “I-I…”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he quickly assured. “Don’t feel like I mean to push that on you.”

Futaba paused for a moment, thinking over the offer he laid in front of her. While it felt like she had already overdone it on the mistletoes kisses for one night, she wondered if things would be a bit different in the long run had she just asked about it, rather than attack him without warning. Sure, she garnered positive results in the end regardless, but could the overall outcome be different?

Personally, she wanted to see what it would be like going about it a lot less forcibly.

“Can we…?” she asked quietly, pulling her face away just slightly to get a clearer view of his.

He looked somewhat taken aback by her accepting the offer, but his face very quickly softened as she looked up at him.

“With pleasure,” he replied, placing one of his hands back against her cheek and leaning into her face.

Their lips made contact again, but this time with a lot less vigor than Futaba’s previous attempt. This time Futaba was able to to take further note of some more things. Akira’s incredible scent that smelled of quiet suburbs and easy breezes. The softness of his lips and how they so easily melded with hers. The warmth that she had already grown so accustomed to wafting off his body and face.

She could admit it freely now. Akira was someone incredible to her. She loved everything about him and everything he stood for, and especially loved how much he had done and was willing to do for her. And she felt almost stupid for feeling like she needed to go out of her way to finish some elaborate “Mistletoe Quest” to figure that out.

“Hey! What the hell is this!” a much gruffer voice demanded.

She and Akira quickly pulled away, turning towards the stairs to face a very impatient and irritated Sojiro. Both hands were on his hips and a very prominent scowl lined his lips.

“So this is what you call you meaning ‘nothing like that’, huh?” he asked.

Futaba instantly froze, hands shooting down and gluing themselves to her sides as her face went incredibly red. Talk about having no idea what to say.

He looked Akira’s way. “And you, when I asked you to let Futaba know dinner was ready, I don’t think this is what I hand in mind.”

Akira’s hand instinctively went to the back of his neck, nervously scratching it up and down.

Sojiro shook his head, “Damn kids. I feel like I should be more upset, but honestly if anything I feel more upset about the fact that you never told me.” He sighed, his face relenting into a relaxed smile. “Why bother lying to me about it?”

Futaba gulped. “Uh… I mean, this wasn’t-”

“It just kind of happened,” Akira interrupted. “We just didn’t have time to tell you about it is all.” He glanced down at her. “Right, Futaba?”

Futaba looked up at him for a brief moment and quickly conceded, “Yeah, that’s it!”

Sojiro eyed the two of them suspiciously, but shrugged all the same. “Alright, well, no more of this stuff up here, alright?” he said, pointing between them and the mistletoe behind them. “It’s dinner time, and I don’t know about the two of you but I’m getting pretty hungry. Time to eat.”

“Sure thing, Sojiro. Let me throw these bags over here and we’ll be there in a second,” Akira assured.

Sojiro nodded once, and slowly made his way back down the stairs, eyeing the two of them a bit harshly as his eyes went along the threshold between the floor and the stairs.

Futaba looked up at Akira, “Thanks for that,” she said. “That would have been… a little hard to get into.”

He smiled and placed his hand back on her head, filling her with a loving warmth she could hardly put into words. “My pleasure. You always did so much to protect me back when we were in the Phantom Thieves, it’s only fair for me to return the favor.”

She smiled. “You’ve done enough of that though, don’t you think? You were the reason I was ever able to get my life back in the first place.”

He shook his head. “If you ask me, I’m behind and clearly haven’t done enough of that.”

He leaned her head back just slightly and kissed her forehead, leaning back afterwards and rubbing the top of it where he’d placed the peck gently with his thumb. She giggled.

“Dinner! Now!” Sojiro shouted from below.

“Guess that’s our cue,” Akira said with a quick tilt of his head.

“Guess so.” Futaba laughed. She turned away from him and started marching down the stairs. “Coming, Sojiro! Get that curry ready, I hunger!”

Kana-chan would definitely be getting an earful later.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to the Persona Secret Santa Discord for all the fun and laughs, and to my friend Grumbles for proofreading this behemoth for me!
> 
> I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Actualragdoll!
> 
> See the art that goes with this work here!  
> http://musicaldefiance.tumblr.com/post/168898229925/read-the-fan-fiction-that-goes-with-this-here


End file.
